LACKLUSTRE Bradford Park Avenue suffered a huge blow to their National League North play-off hopes with a 1-0 home defeat to bottom side North Ferriby United.

The basement boys had won one league game all season and came to Horsfall Stadium on the back of a run of three consecutive 3-0 defeats.

But they pulled off a shock against an Avenue side that had been unfortunate not to get a win at leaders Salford City in midweek.

Mark Bower's men had to settle for a 2-2 draw when were pegged back in stoppage time by Salford.

That body blow looked to have affected the Avenue players as they turned in a sub-standard performance.

The Villagers had scored just 14 goals in their previous 31 games and shipped 80. They had one chance and took it while Avenue, despite not playing well, spurned the handful of openings they manufactured.

Bower was not a happy man and said: "We looked like a hotchpotch of players thrown together, rather than a team.

"It was the worst performance I've seen in the 18 months that I've been at this football club and it's just not good enough.

"We need a massive reaction this week because we're away at Brackley Town on Saturday and if we play like we did here, then we'll get battered.

"It was embarrassing. No disrespect to Ferriby but to lose at home to a side that has had just one win all season is simply not good enough.

"We'd spoken about it before the game. We said Ferriby will definitely win more than one game over the season – make sure it's not against us.

"Unfortunately this is another win for them and we've handed it to them."

Avenue did not get going in the first half against a side that included a face familiar to Horsfall regulars, with Jordan Deacey – son of former boss John Deacey – in the Ferriby starting line-up.

The visitors notched the winning goal in the 19th minute when Lewis Collins stole possession deep inside the home side's area and, when one-on-one with Steve Drench, fired a shot home across the body of the keeper.

Adam Boyes and Dan Pybus both went close in a good spell late in the half, before Boyes saw a shot blocked for a corner. Nothing came from that or any of the free-kicks and corners that Avenue forced.

The players must have faced a broadside from Bower at the break and they enjoyed their best spell in the opening ten minutes of the second half but failed to make it count.